One of Kohl's assumptions that I found most rewarding is the idea of not-learning- the conscious decision not to learn something you are able to learn. The willingness for a student to decide what is important to absorb, coupled with a teacher’s willingness to distinguish that from failing to learn, govern this very principal. Students exist across all cultures, and often find difficulty in judging whether or not socially accepted education is both legitimate and necessary. They might find something being taught to be morally offensive and personally noxious, and may make the conscious decision to disregard the material being presented. It is an obligation of the teacher to inquire as to whether or not this is an act of resentment or indifference, while objectively recognizing the ways in which this act may fortify a student’s culture. As a teacher, one must struggle to maintain identity and integrity, but understand that this is not always tantamount for survival under conditions of oppression. Kohl writes, “Imitating your oppressors and trying to integrate yourself into society might work better. Sometimes survival dictates swallowing one’s pride and giving up self-respect.” (25)
Kohl uses many examples throughout his narrative, most of which are personal memoirs and accounts from his experience of teaching in Harlem. Despite all of the processes that cause failure in both a student and the school in which they attend, he has used his experiences to better understand a passion for teaching, and arguably more so a passion for life. There is one particular story in which Kohl describes the relationship he had with a student named Akmir, a young African-American man belonging to a militant separatist offshoot group of the Nation of Islam. Akmir struggled to learn and maintain his own culture despite a racist and oppressive school system he was required to attend. Kohl, a white Jewish man who had himself witnessed social upheaval due to his creed, had to learn to better accommodate Akmir’s culture, in order to prevent the condescending write-off tone and action Akmir was accustomed to receiving from other teachers.
Akmir was not only practicing not-learning, he was also actively defiant and aggressive with changing the state of the classroom environment to one that needed eradication and a supplanting of an all-encompassing racist structure; he belonged to the “7 percent of African-Americans that believed white man was the devil and needed to be rooted out and destroyed,” and was therefore sent to special schools for discipline problems. While other teachers perceived Akmir’s defiance towards the material they presented, Kohl saw his willing decision to speak out against a racist curriculum as advantageous to his character. Instead of hastily casting him out, he condoned a refusal to abandon self-respect and prevent Akmir from being consumed by hatred and self-hatred. Kohl invited Akmir to classroom sessions, in which others were engaged in Akmir’s projections upon racist language and the way in which he hoped to eradicate it. Kohl spoke of the way in which embracing Akmir’s point of view allowed him to unlearn prior racist language he unknowingly exhibited. The profound experiences and cultures absorbed were a direct result of his ability to stand outside the sphere of power and assume a free inquiry-based objective towards Akmir’s supposed unreachable manner.
Kohl's recollections offer an insight to truly progressive and alternative perceptions on combatting oppressive education. I would reccomend this book to any teacher, or anyone in general, as it is a profound account on the realities and stigmas of public education and ways in which one can mentally challenge them. There are certain ways beyond legislation and broad upheaval that future teachers can engage with to change the system. Distinguishing between failure to learn and willing refusal to learn is just one of the ways we can systematically progress and offer our students unbroken educational opportunity.
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